Softballers play four games in five days

Coach Steve Chapin has been rotating his young pitchers in the games the Saints have played. Julia Beckius came in the third and gave up eight earned runs in 1/3 inning. There were some defensive lapses, but Worthington also smacked the ball around pretty good.

The Saints softball team has won a couple of games in their last at bat this year, but Friday that magic wasn’t there when they paid a visit to Mt. Lake.

The Wolverines scored a run in their last at bat to beat the Saints 4-3.

It was a close game all the way. Both teams scored a run in their half of the first. Mt. Lake added two in the second and clung to a 3-1 lead until the Saints tied it with two in the top of the sixth.

But the Saints gave up what would prove to be game winning run to the Wolverines in the bottom of the sixth. SJA couldn’t score in the seventh and the Wolverines had the win.

Emily Bottem pitched the first two innings and Julia Beckius pitched the last four. Both pitcher struck out one batter. Bottem gave up two earned runs, Beckius gave up one earned run and took the loss.

The Saints had eight hits with Bottem and Kendahl Rogers each having two. Rogers, Acacia Foss and Jordyn Connell each had RBIs.

Lindzey Hanson was 1-3 at the plate and scored twice. She also had three stolen bases, Bottem had two swipes of the Saints total of six stolen bases. Rogers got the other steal.

Worthington 11, SJA 2

On Monday the Saints hosted Worthington. The visiting Trojans had a big third inning knocking in eight runs and that was the difference in the game.

Coach Steve Chapin has been rotating his young pitchers in the games the Saints have played. Julia Beckius came in the third and gave up eight earned runs in 1/3 inning. There were some defensive lapses, but Worthington also smacked the ball around pretty good.

The Saints added two in the bottom of the third. Anna Haler knocked in two RBIs. The Saints had several other threats including loading the bases, but couldn’t manufacture any other runs. The Saints left nine runners on base.

Emily Bottem, Kendahl Rogers and Jordyn Connell each had two hits. Lindzey Hanson stole two bases.

Doubleheader

Fairmont 5, SJA 1

Fairmont 9, SJA 4

The month of bad weather is forcing teams to play doubleheaders and Tuesday night the Saints hosted the Cardinals. The girls dropped both ends of a doubleheader losing the first game 5-1 and the night cap 9-4.

The Saints were playing as the away team in game hone and took a one run lead in their first at bat. Fairmont added two in the bottom of the first and three in the fourth to provide the game’s winning margin.

In game two the Saints took a one run lead in the bottom of the first, but the Cardinals broke the game open with six runs in the second.

The Saints only managed six hits. Leadoff hitter Emily Bottem got two of them and Julia Beckius got three hits, one of them a double.

Julia got two RBIs and Janelle Larson picked up the other RBI. Beckius also got two stolen bases and Lindzey Hanson also swiped a base.

Commenting on these string of games Coach Chapin said, “We are learning what it takes to continue to improve. I am very happy with some of our individual improvement and we are showing some great individual defensive improvement.

“Offensively, we need to string hits together in order to score some more runs.

“As a young team, we need to focus on little victories, and I see some great improvements there. Results would be nice and we all want to win, but focussing on our improvement is very important.

“Emily and Julia are really doing a nice job throwing strikes. Improvement will come as they learn how to fool hitters. Slowly they continue to make this happen.”